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VB Series: Australia vs India

Friday, January 23 2004

In a rain-affected VB Series encounter in Sydney, Australia has dramatically sealed victory thanks to a late six by Brett Lee to extent their lead on the VB Series table.

Prior to the match, an emotion charged SCG observed a minute's silence for the soul of Australian cricketing legend David Hookes, who passed away on Monday.

For once, cricketers could be excused for losing focus on the match.

A deeply distressed Jason Gillespie took first use of the new ball on a typical SCG wicket that was beneficial for both bowlers and batsmen.

In just the second over Brett Lee made the first crucial breakthrough, forcing an edge from Sourav Ganguly (1) for Adam Gilchrist to claim his 300th ODI dismissal.

However, Australia's traditional nemesis VVS Laxman strolled to the crease at number 3 and immediately began to set the tempo with some stunning offside shots.

In a stubborn 62-run stand with Parthiv Patel, Laxman was able to dominate the bowling from early on before the departure of Patel for 28 to a Gillespie slower ball, caught behind the wicket.

Rahul Dravid then made a quick fire 12 from just 7 balls before edging a peach of a delivery from Andrew Bichel to Gilchrist in the 16th over.

Enter Yuvraj Singh - begin one of ODI cricket's most stunning innings.

It seems in this day and age that dominant left-handers are the norm, rather than the exception. From early in his innings, it became more and more perplexing how this man has played just 1 Test match.

In partnership with Laxman, Yuvraj steered the Indians to a massive total before his dismissal in the 50th over to Lee.

Brutal yet classical, the rarely gifted batsman made 139 from just 122 deliveries.

Laxman finished the innings unbeaten on 106 - his highest ODI score, 4th ODI hundred and amazingly his 4th against Australia.

For the Australians, Brett Lee claimed 2/46 while Jason Gillespie and Andy Bichel snared a wicket each.

In response to 296, Australia lost Simon Katich in the 4th over, nicely caught by Sourav Ganguly from the bowling of the impressive youngster Irfan Pathan.

From then on, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting blasted away and looked set to take the game away from the Indians before a heavy storm took place, causing a significant loss of play and eventually 16 overs removed and the target revised to 225.

Soon after the resumption, Pathan claimed two crucial wickets - Ponting and Damien Martyn - caught behind by Parthiv Patel in successive deliveries to leave the hosts in a delicate position.

Despite a master class of power hitting, Adam Gilchrist fell for 95 just 4 runs after Ponting and Martyn when he was caught and bowled in a neat sequence of play from Murali Kartik.

Andrew Symonds bashed a promising 16 - including one massive lofted cover drive for 6 - before becoming the first victim of Ganguly when he found Ajit Agarkar on the square leg fence.

Shortly after, Ganguly bowled Michael Bevan (12) with a clever delivery to leave Australia struggling at 6/195 with 4 overs remaining.

Enter Michel Clarke brain explosions - despite his undoubted promise, he needlessly ran out Ian Harvey before playing a wild slog to hand Ganguly a third wicket in the 32nd over.

Entering the final over, Australia seemed destined for a nail-biting loss requiring 11 to win before a lusty blow over cover from Brett Lee sailed for 6 - leaving 1 run to win from 2 balls.

Despite the best efforts of Lakshmipathy Balaji, Lee was able to squeeze the single to hand Australia victory with 2 wickets and 1 ball to spare.

Andy Bichel was unbeaten on 2 at the non-strikers end.

Final Scores:

India 4/296 (Yuvraj Singh 139, VVS Laxman 106*; B Lee 2/49)

Australia 8/225 (D/L Method) (A Gilchrist 95; S Ganguly 3/41, I Pathan 3/51)

Australia won by 2 wickets - Duckworth/Lewis Method.

Cricket Web Player-of-the-Match: Yuvraj Singh.

Points: Australia 5, India 1.

Posted by Andre